Sink drains

by treetops Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:14 am

Hi our new kingham suffers from slow drainage at the sinks is this a common problem with the waste system on this van or is there an easy fix for it ,thanks

by Justus2 Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:40 am

It's fairly standard I'm afraid. The waste pipes are small and it can be made worse by even short horizontal runs if the van isn't level. Our washbasin in the shower is worse than the kitchen sink. It can be hurried along a bit by twirling a finger just above the plughole to create a whirlpool. Eventually you just accept it... Top tip, our waste under the kitchen sink came off second time out, made a bit of a mess.. They are not glued and are just push fit. I pushed them back together and applied electrical insulating tape on the join to keep them together.

by Lorfal Thu Feb 14, 2019 9:03 am

Yep, normal. Just get used to it. However....we did have a twisted hose in the shower room we thought shower pressure being low was normal too. We got it checked to be sure, and that’s when they found twisted hose, the shower now is really good!

We did get sink in kitchen area checked too, but it’s just the build and wee pipes. I can also vouch for the swirling. We use a basin for washing up, and where it’s possible just chuck contents out rather than drain down sink.

by Paramedic Thu Feb 14, 2019 9:16 am

Yep, slow drainage as above, in our case due to sink waste pipe running ever so slightly up hill. We've overcome this to some degree by deliberately driving up onto levelling blocks beyond the true horizontal so the cab is uppermost to the rear that encourages faster flow.

by burlingtonboaby Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:07 am

treetops wrote:Hi our new kingham suffers from slow drainage at the sinks is this a common problem with the waste system on this van or is there an easy fix for it ,thanks

Hi treetops
Welcome to the forum from sunny cool Bridlington.
Boaby

by RogerThat Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:09 am

Mine too was bloody awful...

I made some modifications to improve it.

First of all, I replaced the 90 degree plug hole with a 45 degree plug hole which in turn gave a far better run off:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Most of the issue of the slow drain seemed to be down to the tiny size of the holes in the plug outlet itself.

Granted, this is the washroom sink, but the principal is the same.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

So I decided to cut out some pieces of the hole in order to make the "holes" bigger and allow the water to drain faster.

Like so:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The end result is a sink in which water flows out as fast as it flows in from the tap.

Which is what it should do!

by treetops Thu Feb 14, 2019 12:47 pm

Thank you for all your replies at least now I will know it's a common problem, and will try the suggestions mentioned, one thing I was curious about and that isifthe waste tankisvented or not as if it isn't that could cause a pressure back up !

by Justus2 Thu Feb 14, 2019 1:40 pm

I think both tanks are vented... I had some cleaner in our waste just the other day, filled it via the sink till it came up the shower plug hole. There was a slight dripping onto the drive under the van, but only a pint or so. The fresh is without a doubt vented as it drips when its full from the top of the tank.

by Spospe Thu Feb 14, 2019 1:49 pm

To improve the flow of your existing setup without doing any modifications at all, use a plastic washing-up bowl and empty it by aiming the contents directly at the plug hole in one steady swoosh. Once the flow is established, you should find that the flow continues quite well. This has worked well for us in a 1999 Duetto, a 2008 Duetto and a 2014 Warwick Duo.

by inspiredron Sat Feb 16, 2019 2:05 am

When our van was new we got fed up with constant smells coming up the sink wastes so I installed CAK tanks traps. Eventually I removed the traps because they slowed down the flow too much. Now we empty the waste tank more often and give it a good rinse if it does get whiffy.
However we did keep the non return valves on the shower wastes which were put on to stop waste coming up into the shower tray on left hand bends whenever the waste tank was more than about one third full!

by RogerThat Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:03 pm

inspiredron wrote:we did keep the non return valves on the shower wastes which were put on to stop waste coming up into the shower tray on left hand bends whenever the waste tank was more than about one third full!

I suffer with this problem...

Is this something I can fit to the pipework under the van?

Do you have any more details you could share please, Ron?

by inspiredron Tue Feb 19, 2019 11:45 pm

Check out my post on this thread
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
It has photos. The parts come from CAK tanks.
Hope that helps

by RogerThat Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:48 am

Excellent!

I think this is a job I can tackle myself, will crawl under the van when Spring arrives. Thanks again Ron!

by Guest Wed Feb 20, 2019 1:03 pm

This always amuses me!
Here we have a planet several billions of years old and having had the force of gravity for, I assume, all of that.
Now, we spend £55 to £60k on a simple vehicle and the force of gravity fails to drain the bl88dy sink!!!
How hard is this? Poking your finger around in the drain seems to work, but seems primitive to me!!

hugegrins

by Guest Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:45 pm

agree with Ian, surely the waste tank is underneath the washroom and kitchen?
our tank is like this and each 'drain' (kitchen sink, washroom sink and two in the shower) have their own shortest route, wide bore, flexible pipe leading directly down into the tank which has four inlet points...no pipes joining together or being routed any longer than straight down into the tank.
I can see from the linked thread that the pipework is gathered together and joined so that they all enter on the same side...
surely this will mean extra pipe length and lack of fall?
perhaps this 'design feature' is actually what's causing the more complex routing, too much horizontal pipework and therefore less flow? whereas if the tank had more relevant entry points the pipework might function better?

by StewPotch Wed Feb 20, 2019 7:35 pm

The drainage in our Fairford is poor also. Maybe because A/S have joined all the drain pipes so as to only put one hole in the van floor leading to the grey tank?
Anyway, we’re used to it now.

by Guest Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:09 pm

In my 1934 house, if you pull the plug out of a sink, or bath, the water disappears.
Now, how difficult was that??
Since 1934 we've had Spitfires, Lightnings, Concorde, allegedly men on the moon, so here we are in 2019 poking our fingers into sink drains on 55 to 60,000£ motorhomes (BTW our first entire house in 1975 was £6900!!!
I'm an engineer don't think this can be rocket science !!!!

by StewPotch Thu Feb 21, 2019 9:07 am

IanH wrote:..........don't think this can be rocket science !!!!

You’re 100% correct Ian but there are so many little ‘niggles’ with A/S that I just now accept them.
At one time I’d have done something about it but we’ve got a new Carthago coming in July so I’ll just live with poking my finger in the drain until I get rid of the Fairford. allthumbz

by Guest Thu Feb 21, 2019 5:50 pm

StewPotch wrote:
IanH wrote:..........don't think this can be rocket science !!!!
You’re 100% correct Ian but there are so many little ‘niggles’ with A/S that I just now accept them.
At one time I’d have done something about it but we’ve got a new Carthago coming in July so I’ll just live with poking my finger in the drain until I get rid of the Fairford...

Ah, you've seen the light....we're on. our second one...
can't have had the Fairford very long, fairly recent model?

by StewPotch Thu Feb 21, 2019 9:02 pm

bolero boy wrote:
StewPotch wrote:
IanH wrote:..........don't think this can be rocket science !!!!
You’re 100% correct Ian but there are so many little ‘niggles’ with A/S that I just now accept them.
At one time I’d have done something about it but we’ve got a new Carthago coming in July so I’ll just live with poking my finger in the drain until I get rid of the Fairford...
Ah, you've seen the light....we're on. our second one...
can't have had the Fairford very long, fairly recent model?

Not really so much a case of seeing the light - we had always planned to buy an A Class when I retired, then, when the wife retires, going full time for a few years in Europe, North Africa & Canada/USA.
The Fairford is just over 3 years old, we had originally aimed at buying the A Class next year when the Fairford was nearly 4 years old but financially it made more sense to buy new this year, plus, I want a new toy to celebrate my retirement with!
We’ve been looking for a few years (even before we bought the Fairford) at a few A Class brands and models but eventually chose Carthago as the manufacturer.
Then the hard bit was choosing the model - a lot of them were too long, a few the right size and some being too small.
Eventually we decided on the chic C-Line 4.9LE as it seems to be everything we need. We’ve added loads of extras including having the drop down bed removed and additional storage put in, extra large sky light above the cab, hab AC, winter pack, SOG, TV/entertainment pack & extra bedroom TV, satellite dish, solar panel, inverter, extra battery, uprated chassis, uprated engine, etc.
It seems to us to be the right balance regarding size v drive ability, bed layout, lounge area, separate WC/shower, scooter garage, storage, etc. The only other thing we might do is add a cycle rack as the garage will be probably be too busy with a scooter and all the usual paraphernalia.
I think the kitchen area is a bit tight, but kind of standard for a European van?
How do you get on with your van?
I know we can’t compare exactly as your van is smaller with a unique bedroom, but that aside, how do you rate Carthago?

by Guest Thu Feb 21, 2019 9:18 pm

StewPotch wrote:
bolero boy wrote:
StewPotch wrote:
You’re 100% correct Ian but there are so many little ‘niggles’ with A/S that I just now accept them.
At one time I’d have done something about it but we’ve got a new Carthago coming in July so I’ll just live with poking my finger in the drain until I get rid of the Fairford...
Ah, you've seen the light....we're on. our second one...
can't have had the Fairford very long, fairly recent model?
Not really so much a case of seeing the light - we had always planned to buy an A Class when I retired, then, when the wife retires, going full time for a few years in Europe, North Africa & Canada/USA.
The Fairford is just over 3 years old, we had originally aimed at buying the A Class next year when the Fairford was nearly 4 years old but financially it made more sense to buy new this year, plus, I want a new toy to celebrate my retirement with!
We’ve been looking for a few years (even before we bought the Fairford) at a few A Class brands and models but eventually chose Carthago as the manufacturer.
Then the hard bit was choosing the model - a lot of them were too long, a few the right size and some being too small.
Eventually we decided on the chic C-Line 4.9LE as it seems to be everything we need. We’ve added loads of extras including having the drop down bed removed and additional storage put in, extra large sky light above the cab, hab AC, winter pack, SOG, TV/entertainment pack & extra bedroom TV, satellite dish, solar panel, inverter, extra battery, uprated chassis, uprated engine, etc.
It seems to us to be the right balance regarding size v drive ability, bed layout, lounge area, separate WC/shower, scooter garage, storage, etc. The only other thing we might do is add a cycle rack as the garage will be probably be too busy with a scooter and all the usual paraphernalia.
I think the kitchen area is a bit tight, but kind of standard for a European van?
How do you get on with your van?
I know we can’t compare exactly as your van is smaller with a unique bedroom, but that aside, how do you rate Carthago?

Do the sink drains work????!!!!

by inspiredron Fri Feb 22, 2019 5:41 am

RogerThat wrote:Excellent!

I think this is a job I can tackle myself, will crawl under the van when Spring arrives. Thanks again Ron!

Yes very easy and plenty of clearance at the back. As I have said before, I removed the traps because they slowed down the flow too much but the non return valves on the shoes tray are vital.

by PitStopCrew Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:05 pm

I'm glad I found this thread... I thought I had a problem - sounds like it's pretty common. Bit rubbish though and the first time I've come across it in a range of different vans.

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